Annual usage of plastic bags by U.S. retailers is estimated to exceed 50 billion units. A certain percentage of these bags may be ordinary rectangular bags having various features, but a large percentage of the bags so used are what is known as T-shirt type merchandise bags (bags which have handles projecting upwardly on each side from the mouth of the bag).
Efforts have been made almost from the introduction of plastic bags to provide some type of advertising, discount or coupon strips on T-shirt or other plastic bags.
In some instances, these efforts have taken the form of adhesively applied labels or strips as may be seen from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,363,966 and 5,298,104.
In other cases, the strips have been overlaid on the bag film or applied transversely to the bags as may be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,804,323, 5,242,365, and 5,363,966.
In still other expedients, advertising strips have been overlaid or underlaid with respect to the basic bag forming film.
See: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,209,386, 3,744,383, 4,120,716, 4,182,222, 4,268,344, 4,537,586, 4,726,171, and 5,011,466.
In one instance, namely U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,936, a "banner" has been applied along the side edges of plastic rectangular bags and sealed as a part of a rectangular bag forming and filling process.
In no instance of which the present inventors are aware have detachable coupon or promotional strips been provided along the sides of T-shirt bags, and particularly within the gussets of such bags.
Heretofore, there have only been two ways to put advertising/promotional messages on plastic bags: (1) advertising and/or coupons could be printed on the walls of the bags themselves or (2) in the case of certain rectangular bags, as contrasted with T-shirt bags, detachable promotional strips may be attached to the lower edges of the bags. Such promotional strips sometimes are in the form of coupons which can be redeemed for price discounts or special items offered by the retailer.
These advertising strips and/or coupons have been formed during the process of manufacturing rectangular bags as transverse attachments along the bottom edges of bags made in lay-flat form. When bags are made in roll form, the advertising strip and/or coupons can be formed along one side edge of a printed film web as it moves in the machine direction. On these roll bags, the advertising/coupon strip, the bottom seal of each individual bag and any perforations below the bottom seal are all formed along the side edge of the film web.
For both the lay-flat and roll forms, the advertising strip and/or coupons are created during the manufacturing process by printing on predetermined areas of the film web prior to its arrival at the sealing, perforating and cutting areas where the film web is converted into finished lay-flat or roll bags. In both cases, the bags are sealed at the bottom and may be perforated below the seal to permit the advertising strip and/or coupons to be easily torn from the bottom of the bag. In the case of bags on rolls, additional steps are required. Side seals and a second (transverse) perforation are made in the film web between the trailing side of the first bag and the leading side of the following bag so that one bag can be easily separated from another.
While these processes may be employed in the manufacture of rectangular open-topped bags, they are not suited for the manufacture of either lay-flat or roll T-shirt type bags where the cutting process to form the handles and mouth of each bag does not accommodate the creation of a transverse strip across the bottom of each bag. The manufacturing process requires both the top and bottom of each T-shirt bag to be sealed before the cutting process forms the top of the bags. In the case of T-shirt bags on rolls, an additional step is required where perforations are placed between the sealed bottom edge of one bag and the sealed top edges of the handles of the adjoining bag. These perforations are necessary so that each bag can be easily torn from the roll of bags.
Thus, the only way, heretofore, for providing coupons on T-shirt bags has been by printing advertising and/or coupons on the outside of the bag walls, as may also be done with open-top rectangular bags, or by using adhesive strips which bond to the surface of the bags. This latter process slows production and increases costs. It also makes packaging appear untidy and obscures printed graphics on the bags. Advertising and/or coupons printed on bags must be cut out of the bag walls by customers using a scissors or knife. Not only is this requirement a nuisance and inconvenience to the customer, but also quite often the presence of such advertising and/or coupons may be overlooked by the customer who is usually more interested in what has been placed in his or her bag than in what may appear on the bag side wall. Bags with advertising and/or coupons printed on their walls also have the disadvantage of being unsuitable for secondary usage around the home after their side walls are cut to remove the printed messages. Very importantly, printing advertising and/or coupons on the bag walls also detracts from the store's printed graphics, which is a serious disadvantage to the retailer.
Because T-shirt bags represent something in excess of 2/3's of all plastic bags employed by U.S. retailers to pack food and other merchandise, it would be most desirable to provide for the removable attachment to T-shirt bags of some type of advertising or coupon strips which could at least be viewed and conveniently removed by the retailer's customers whose purchases are packed in such bags and which would not interfere with, or detract from, the graphic designs printed on retail bags.